Antigay Watch List: Why Do Voters Love Our Villains?

When it comes to this list of homophobic candidates, voters passed on electing a few of the most wacky. But the familiar faces of many villains return.

BY Advocate.com Editors

November 08 2012 6:00 AM ET

Mark Clayton, U.S. Senate, TennesseeRESULTS: Defeated

Republican Bob Corker, as expected, easily defeated antigay gadfly Democrat Mark Clayton in the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee. While Corker, an incumbent, is no friend to LGBTs, with a 0 rating from the Human Rights Campaign, Clayton, who was disowned by his party after a surprise primary win, was perhaps even worse on our issues.

The party declined to support Clayton because of his volunteer work with Public Advocate, an antigay organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And The Washington Post, which had dubbed Clayton “2012’s Worst Candidate,” notes that his “policy ideas set him apart from many other Democrats: He is unusual in opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage, but he’s downright exceptional in saying that the Transportation Security Administration ‘mandates [transsexuals] and homosexuals grabbing children in their stranger-danger zones.’”